All about our life afloat ... currently on a dock in the Canadian Gulf Islands.

Monday, August 23, 2010

DISCOMBOBULATED

Yes, that's really a word, and it perfectly describes the state of affairs chez M & M these days.

Much has happened since I last posted (are you surprised?), both good and bad, so I'll try to give you a brief update - ha! Anyone who knows me knows how impossible 'brief' is for me.

First of all, Michael and I celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary a few weeks ago -- we decided to drive out to Jordan River for the day, and it was lovely...No place there to have dinner (we couldn't afford it anyway!) but we had a hot dog and ice cream at this fancy joint...

We've had at least one dinghy picnic in the past week or so, and met up with these fellows...Check out the dude who's telling us to get lost:Yacht-spotting that day included the 145' MV Aghassi, a Canadian vessel available for charter at a mere $150,000 a week (but, hey, she carries eight crew and ten guests, don'tcha know) ...Then I celebrated 31 years of continuous sobriety last Wednesday, and that was pretty cool. We are SO busy right now that there was barely time to celebrate, but we combined a nice lunch with a little trip we needed to make, so it worked out.

The trip we needed to make was just out to Brentwood Bay, where this coming Monday the Wind Walker will get 'hauled out' for its every-other-year bottom cleaning (which partly explains why we're so busy - getting ready for a haul-out is HUGE). We arrived at the facility just in time to watch a 50' sailboat come out of the water...This system is called a marine 'ways' and basically it's the least 'intrusive' to the boat, which is important to us when the boat in question is a 45-year-old classic wooden boat. The idea is that you come in on a high tide, and the 'carriage' is lowered into the water under your boat -- as the tide goes out, the smart folks who work there work with you to 'position' your boat on blocks on the platform - then they use a very powerful winch to pull the platform up out of the water into that shed, so you can work on it under cover. In the industry what we're doing is called a 'shave and a haircut', which means a pressure wash of the whole bottom, scraping mussels and other assorted growth off the props and struts, and then a paint job before it goes back into the water.

All of which is very stressful, and we have less than 24 hours from beginning to end so everything has to be completely prepared and ready to go the minute the boat is high and dry. For us it's compounded by the fact that our annual Gulf-Islands-cruise-holiday begins the moment the boat is back in the water, so we are actually having to prepare for a full month away -- not that we'll be able to afford much of a holiday by the time we pay for that shave and haircut! :-)

Meanwhile, we had our final knitting cruise of the season last Sunday, and eight wonderful knitters joined us for the trip ... we went out to Albert Head for lunch, and then cruised into the Esquimalt Harbour on our way home to see that Tamil refugee ship that's been in the news... The Fisgard lighthouse was a much prettier sight...It was a lovely day ... until... Rosemary, one of the knitters, slipped and hurt her knee quite badly as we were coming back in to the dock. Warning: everything I'm about to tell you now is very sad.

Rosemary is 48 years old, and I'd never met her before -- she came along with another friend who is a regular at our Friday Knit'n'Cafe. She had a blast on the cruise, really enjoying sitting outside and being in the company of other knitters.

Because we live on a boat, and Rosemary couldn't move without a lot of pain, we had to call an ambulance as soon as we were back on the dock. Rosemary lives with and looks after her elderly mom, so I went to the hospital to hang out with her in Emergency, knowing that it's usually a looooong wait. It was nice -- I was getting to know someone that seemed like a really neat woman!

After several hours she was sent for an xray and the result was inconclusive -- for sure she had dislocated her knee and torn ligaments, etc., but the swelling was too bad for them to tell for certain if anything was broken. Meanwhile her Mom had turned up in a taxi, and then they decided to release Rosemary, with a pair of crutches, right after they pumped her full of morphine for the pain.

Her mom and I both protested, to no avail ... Rosemary apparently didn't fit the 'criteria' to spend the night in the hospital.

I got them home about 9:30 Sunday evening, after much ado trying to help Rosemary negotiate getting in and out of my van with those crutches, and helping her get settled in her bed. The poor woman was exhausted!

On Tuesday morning at about 6:30 a.m., she was trying to get out of bed ... and had a stroke. This vivacious, fun and funny woman passed away Tuesday evening at about midnight.

Yesterday most of the women who were on that cruise (her last awesome day alive) and most of Rosemary's family came back aboard the Wind Walker for a bit of a memorial -- we met her wonderful 23-year-old son (whom she'd raised as a single parent) and her sister, and spent the afternoon sharing stories about her life. It's unbelievable ...

Now you know why I'm discombobulated -- it's been a crazy, busy and very sad week here. Thank goodness for friends, a large to-do list, grandchildren... ... and knitting. The heather shawl got finished, blocked...... and worn... It's Monday morning, we leave the dock here in six days, and I have to 'hit the decks running' ... more tomorrow, hopefully!

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About Me

My hubby Michael and I have lived afloat for 18 years now, and we'll never go back to land! The last 15 years have been on our 38' 1965 Chris Craft, Wind Walker . Apart from boating, I knit. A lot. You can email me at skipper at mvwindwalker dot com .